Remembering The Return of Superman

Written by John Edward Betancourt

So, it came to pass, the Last Son of Krypton, the world's greatest protector, a man made of steel had fallen in the streets of Metropolis, defending it with his life. The world was stunned, and all would mourn the passing of Superman, but his death...was only temporary. Yes, the Return of Superman was the only logical plot line to follow his death and DC Comics pulled out all the stops in telling such a tale.

Following his demise at the hands of Doomsday, the Man of Steel is entombed within a shrine and the world seems to be a worse place without him. But in his absence, there seems to be a flicker of hope as four men, each bearing the seal of the house of El upon their chest step in to save the day, and their arrival will make the world a vastly different place.

I have to admit, the entire story of how Superman returned, was to me, as compelling as the story that came before it. We had no clue who might have been the real Kal-El when it came to this ‘Reign of the Supermen’, minus of course Steel since John Henry Irons was born on earth. But the other three...well, they all looked like the Man of Steel, and flat out had his genetic makeup and it made for some incredible storytelling.  
 
After all, the storyline did a fine job of slowly revealing the true origins of these Supermen and I loved that the Cyborg, who appeared to be the true reanimation of Superman at first, turned out to be one of the nastiest villains out there. After all, destroying Coast City and murdering seven million people in order to build an engine is pretty damn cold blooded. Oddly enough, my brother and I were split on who was the real Superman. My money was on the Eradicator since he seemed like a man who had dealt with death and my bro was all about the Cyborg and well...we were both wrong. Since it turned out the real Kal-El was healing inside the Fortress of Solitude all this time. 

Either way, this was a story arc that completely pulled me in. I not only wanted to see Superman return badly, but I could not wait to see how he came back to life after being devastated by Doomsday. Of course, the story between Doomsday and Superman wasn’t quite wrapped up just yet, but we will visit that another day, down the road.   

---